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Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

I always were at least a veil, losing ones vision is not worth it to me. I would love it if the girls were always predictable and could be worked with out protection but they are not. Well at least mine are not.

"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!" Zapata

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Originally Posted by Acebird

Mine needs air conditioning. It is the perspiration that covers my glasses that does me in. Contacts would probably solve the problem but there is no way I could stand sticking those in my eyes. Doctor says my eyes are not right for contacts anyway.

I can help there. An old trick for when you're in a costume thats very hot for any extended period of time (like back when I was a mascot) is to wear a fishing vest under it with those frozen gel packs in every pocket. You can buy them at any walmart or pharmacy, just ask for them if you can't find them in the sports injury section with the other heating/cooling packs. Get the small ones, toss them in the freezer. Whenever its really hot out and you want to suit up, put on the fishing vest and fill the pockets with frozen gel packs. Depending on the number of pockets in the vest, it can get you downright frosty in even hundred degree weather.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Originally Posted by Acebird

It looks like he got stung in the cheek twice to me.

Pretty sure he was tagged around 5:45 and possibly again around 12:15. But his reaction is just to put a little smoke on it and wipe the stinger off. Pretty smooth, if that was me I would have been doing the spastic twist.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

I got tired of putting my full gear on every time. Luckily my bees are gentle enough that all I have to do is give them a quick smoke every now and again and I can do whatever I like, even in a black tshirt.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

What if something changes and 20 bees go at you at once? What are the warning signs that you are about to get it before it happens? In most cases you can put your bear hands into a mass of bee and move them around but the ones that you are pushing around are not the ones that sap you.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

You notice it when you crack open the lid. If you wave your hand over the topbars and they go at it, they have a bad day. Sometimes you simply have bad luck. I dropped a full hive this year while moving it, got about five hundred stings. Bees were hanging under my forearms in rows, dangling from their stingers when I moved my arms. Was a strange feeling. I felt a bit dizzy after that accident, but not much else happened. I regularily receive stings, one per day up minimum. I got used to it and don't mind much.

To clarify. You can't do this with every bee colony. I suit up when it is necessary, especially when there is lot of work and no time, when moving bees (you guessed it) or doing cutout of feral swarms. Do not wear gloves, though. Do not mind stings into my hands at all.

I trained this by stinging myself on purpose for a year. Once a week to once a day. After that no more worries. It is a nice way to work bees. The bees are calmer, too, since you are less hasty, less anxious and of course: would you trust someone in the street hooded and suited up?

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Why not, it is very healthy. One sting flushes out all your stress hormone reservoir. Cortisol that is. You cannot get resistant to it, one sting flushes empty the Cortisol storage. All your lifetime, over and over again, no resistance to it. The result is a very deep sleep the next night. Even a partly filled stress hormon reservoir causes a light and unhealthy sleep.

Stings get the body into repair mode and into a very deep sleep. A good sleep prolongs your life, this is why all the oldtimers/old beekeepers get so old. Older than the average men, at least that is the case here in Europe. Beekeepers get 80 to 90 years old. And older. I reckon this is because of the stings mainly.

I know that the first year is a year of pain and swelling and such. But all the years after that it is simply easy. Much more easier. You sort of get addicted to stings. I am. In winter I become nervous more and more. Some bee venom ointment helps during that time.

A sting is the kiss of the bee. Who doesn't love being kissed? Who wouldn't miss it?

Sure this can be done with calm bees only. With stingy bees you cannot do this, since the stings keep coming by the minute. That is bothersome. But if you breed for calm bees, that is fun to keep them.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Beeswax candles and honey lead us to apitherapy; and apitherapy lead us to getting bees! LOL It was kind of in a reverse order. Dad was also a beekeeper years ago.

Been stung many, many times on purpose. Another nice thing about apitherapy was knowing the itching and swelling was not going to be a problem if stung while working the bees.

Venom is so good for so many things. It is a shame when people fear venom due to worrying they may be allergic (usually they are not) or that it automatically causes harm (unique circumstances are possible). Venom can be used for many health issues including infection, lung issues, heart, cancer, arthritis, pain, inflammation, Lyme disease, etc. The other products of the hive (royal jelly, propolis, beeswax, honey, bee bread/pollen) also are excellent for health.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Originally Posted by scorpionmain

I don't want to catch a sting to the eye & possibly lose my vision.
I wear a veil.

I can understand your fear. I wear a veil most of the time because I don't like getting stung where I can't get the stinger out, under my beard or the hair on my head. I have gone w/out a veil many times and have been stung near the eye. Never have I been stung on the eyeball itself. Not to say you have nothing to fear, but you will be hard pressed to find a case of someone getting stung on the eyeball.

Do what makes you most comfortable. Even around Sam Comfort. He is not evangelical about his ways of doing what he does. Nor am I. If you feel safest wearing a veil or suit or gloves or all three, you should. Otherwise you won't enjoy your bees as much as you could.

Re: Youtube videos... do the bees seem friendlier than your bees???

Originally Posted by sqkcrk

Do what makes you most comfortable. If you feel safest wearing a veil or suit or gloves or all three, you should. Otherwise you won't enjoy your bees as much as you could.

Excellent advice Mark. There is no right or wrong, no trophies waiting for us at the next level of shedding equipment, nothing we have to prove to anyone. Simply have fun working the bees in a relaxed manner, whatever that looks like for us as individuals.